Yogi Adityanath Takes A Swipe At Rahul Gandhi Over His Gujarat Campaign

Raipur: Rahul Gandhi is not someone who the BJP should be wary of as the Congress vice president is a "failed player in politics", Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Monday. "BJP will again form its government with full majority in Gujarat," Mr Adityanath told reporters in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur, where he met with Bharatiya Janata Party supporters and attended party programmes.

Rahul Gandhi has been campaigning for the Congress in Gujarat, where the BJP has been in power for 22 years. It was during his tour of Gujarat that Patidar or Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel pledged his support to the Congress in its attempt to wrest Gujarat from the BJP. Mr Patel has asked the Congress if it can deliver their quota demand if it came to power.

"Rahul Gandhi is a failed player in politics. Congress leaders themselves have started commenting on him that wherever he becomes more active, the party has to face defeat," said Mr Adityanath, who was made Chief Minister by the BJP after the party won a big majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in March this year.

Addressing BJP workers at Raipur's Balbir Singh Juneja Indoor Stadium, Mr Adityanath accused Rahul Gandhi's party of "practising politics of appeasement for political gains..." Mr Adityanath, who is also the head priest of Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur, said the country would not have been facing so many problems if the Congress had acted responsibly.

"If the Congress leaders had done their duties, the country would not have been grappling with starvation and lack of health facilities. If anyone is responsible for the country's mismanagement, it is the long rule of the Congress," he told news agency Press Trust of India.

On Saturday last, Rahul Gandhi started the last leg of his Gujarat campaign with another attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. North Gujarat, which he had left for the last, is politically crucial, having a large concentration of the Patidar community.

He continued his attack on the BJP over demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which the party insists has been ill-conceived and wrongly implemented.

(With inputs from PTI)